Container with cover-carrying applicator

ABSTRACT

A container comprises a case divided into compartments, one of which is partially covered by a topwall. A lid has mounted thereon an applicator which can be inserted into the partially covered compartment as the lid is placed on the case. A second compartment serves to hold material to be applied by the applicator. The lid serves as a handle for the applicator.

United States Patent 1191 Seidler 1451 Sept. 25, 1973 CONTAINER WITH COVER-CARRYING APPLICATOR [76] Inventor: David Seidler, 527 Lexington Ave.,

Forest Hills, N.Y. 10017 22 Filed: May 12,1971

211 Appl.No.: 142,720

15/257.05, 258; 132/79 R, 79 A, 79 B, 79 C, 81, 84 R, 84 A, 84 D; 206/15.l B, 15.1 E, 56 C; 401/18, 118, 126, 128-130 2,951,489 9/1960 Roberts 401/107 X 497,451 5/1893 Kintner 15/258 UX 362,926 5/1887 Benninghaus 220/41 UX 2,689,966 9/1954 Reuss 15/258 X 1,546,219 7/1925 Enzer et al 401/118 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,167,055 4/1964 Germany 15/184 1,175,904 7/1964 Germany 15/184 Primary ExaminerDaniel Blum Attorney-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman & Kaplan [57] ABSTRACT A container comprises a case divided into compartments, one of which is partially covered by a topwall. A lid has mounted thereon an applicator which can be inserted into the partially covered compartment as the [56] References Cited l d h A d UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 is p ace on t e case. secon compartment serves to hold material to be applied by the applicator. The lld 2,832,983 5/1958 Knopf 401/18 x Serves as a handle for the applicaton 1,085,531 1/1914 Boise 15/258 1,193,433 8/1916 Searcy 401/130 X 8 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDSEPZSHTS \NVENTOR CONTAINER WITH COVER-CARRYING APPLICATOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A wide variety of containers providing storage for an applicator and a material to be applied is available. Such containers, in general, are subject to the disadvantage'that the applicator may be inadvertently separated and lost. Where the applicator has been used with highly colored materials, it may come in contact with fabrics, for instance, and do irreparable damage. Moreover, when the container is small the applicator must be still smaller and manipulation of the applicator becomes awkward.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A container has therein compartments, one of which is suitable for storage of solid or pasty materials, and another of which is partially covered by a topwall. The container has a lid on which is mounted an applicator, the lid serving as a handle for the applicator. In emplacement of the lid on the container, the applicator enters the compartment which is partially covered. The lid then covers that part of the container not covered by the topwall. The container is particularly suited for the storage of cosmetics.

Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an improved container suitable for storage of solid or pasty materials and for storage of an applicator to be used in application of said materials under conditions such that accidental loss of said applicator is prevented.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved container suitable for storage of an applicator wherein the lid of the container servesas a handle for the applicator.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises an article of manufacture possessing the features, properties, and the 'relation of elements which will be exemplified in the article hereinafter described, and the scope of the invention willbe indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view .of a container and lid;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a container and lid in partial section; 7

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 with the lid partially removed;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the lid and applicator.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A container in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1-5 where a case, in general, is indicated by the reference numeral 11 and a lid, in general, is indicated by the reference numeral 12. The lid 12 has mounted thereon an applicator 13 where the operative part of the applicator 13 is a brush 14. The container 11 is divided into two compartments 15 and 16 by a transverse wall 17 between upstanding side walls 18 and 19. Compartment 15 is Partially covered by the topwall 20, leaving a gap between the topwall 20 and the transverse wall 17. In placing the lid 12 on the container 11 the applicator 13 is inserted into the partially covered compartment through the gap between the topwall 20 and the transverse wall 17. The lid 12 has a rim 22 and a bottom section 23 with an edge 24. When the lid is placed on the container, the bottom section 23 fits within the side walls 18 and 19 and the lid edge 25 fits against the edge 26 of the topwall 20, therebycompletely closing the container.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, lid 12 is held to the case by means of friction fit between the edges 24 and 27 on lid 12 and the inwardly facing surfaces of side walls 18 and 19. Although the edges 24 and 27 may fit with friction along their entire length within the side walls 18 and 19, it has been found desirable to make the edges 24 and 27 convergent from an end of the container toward the middle of the container (FIGS. 1 and 2). As a result, most of the friction between the lid and the case occurs in the vicinity of the container end 28. With this arrangement, the lid is readily removable from the container, and yet is held thereto sufficiently firmly to avoid accidental dislodgement. Also, by having clearance between edges 24 and 27 and side walls 18 and 19 in the area of the gap, the applicator is more easily removed from and replaced in the container. As a result of the taper in the lid, the rim 22 and the edge 24 diverge as can be more clearly seen from the broken lines which are extensions of these components.

For easy removal of the lid 12 from the container 11, the width of the rim is such that it projects beyond the sidewall at'some region. In the embodiment shown, this is most easily seen in FIG. 4, where a part 22 of the rim 22 overlaps the container 11 at the end 28.

The manner in which the applicator 13 is inserted into and withdrawn from the compartment 15 is shown in FIG. 4. As will be seen, the applicator 13 is withdrawn through the gap between the edge 26 of the topwall 20 and the transverse wall 17.

The clearance between the edges 24 and 27 of the bottom section 23 of the lid 12 and the side walls 18 and 19 of the case can be seen in FIG. 5 taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3. It should be noted that the transverse wall 17 in this embodiment, is shorter than side walls 18 and 19 by an amount sufficient so that the bottom section 23 of the lid 12 can be seated within the case 11.

A further embodiment of the applicator 13 is shown in FIG. 6, in which the operative portion is a pad 31. The pad 31 is preferably spongy in nature so that it may hold water for wetting a cosmetic, or so that it may pick up the cosmetic directly where the cosmetic is pasty. The operative portion of the applicator 13 may have other forms depending on the nature of the materials stored in the compartment 16.

In the embodiment described above, the case is elongate and the lid is held thereto by friction. Needless to say, the case may be of other shapessuch as round or elliptical, or may have square ends. Furthermore, means other than the transverse wall 17 may be used to divide the case. For instance, ridges could be disposed to hold a cup at the end of the case not covered by the topwall 20. The cup could contain whatever material is to be applied by the applicator.

With respect to the method of holding the lid 12 on the case ll, methods such as snap-action between the case and the lid could also be used.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim:

1. A container comprising a case having a bottom wall, continuous upstanding side and end walls extending upwardly from said bottom wall and having upstanding edges and a top wall joined to said upstanding edges of said side walls, said top wall being of smaller longitudinal dimension than said bottom wall but of substantial extent and overlying only a portion of said bottom wall whereby to define a closed first case portion and an upwardly open second case portion, said top wall being of a pre-selected thickness; a lid removably overlying said second case portion in contact with exposed upstanding edges of said side walls, said lid being dimensioned to completely cover said second case portion, said lid including a downwardly extending portion received between portions of said exposed upstanding edges of said side walls and at least partly in frictional engagement with said side walls, and an applicator integrally formed with and extending from said lid in a direction to orient said applicator to a position entirely within said closed first case portion, all parts of said applicator extending below said lid by a dimension at least equal to the pre-selected thickness of said top wall, the top surface of said lid and the top surface of said top wall being substantially flush when said lid is in closed position; and receptacle defining means cooperating with said bottom wall and said side walls for receiving a composition to be applied by said applicator, said receptacle defining means being so located as to define a receptacle located wholly within said second case portion which is exposed when said lid is removed from said case.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein a portion of said lid extends beyond at least a part of an end wall whereby to provide means for gripping said lid and removing it from said case against the frictional engagement between said downwardly extending portion and said side walls.

3. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said applicator includes a brush at the free end thereof.

4. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said applicator includes a pad at the free end thereof.

5. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said receptacle defining means comprises a transverse wall of preselected height extending between said side walls and projecting upwardly from said bottom wall.

6. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein said downwardly extending portion of said lid completely overlies said receptacle and said pre-selected height of said transverse wall is sufficient to place the top edge of said transverse wall in close proximity with said downwardly extending portion when said lid is mounted on said case.

7. A container as claimed in claim 6 wherein said top wall has a substantially transverse edge defining the dividing line between said closed first case portion and said upwardly open second case portion and said transverse wall is longitudinally spaced from said transverse edge by a distance sufficient to permit entry of said applicator into said first case portion.

8. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said lid is of a pre-selected thickness, said pre-selected thickness being substantially the same as said pre-selected thickness of said top wall. 

1. A container comprising a case having a bottom wall, continuous upstanding side and end walls extending upwardly from said bottom wall and having upstanding edges and a top wall joined to said upstanding edges of said side walls, said top wall being of smaller longitudinal dimension than said bottom wall but of substantial extent and overlying only a portion of said bottom wall whereby to define a closed first case portion and an upwardly open second case portion, said top wall being of a preselected thickness; a lid removably overlying said second case portion in contact with exposed upstanding edges of said side walls, said lid being dimensioned to completely cover said second case portion, said lid including a downwardly extending portion received between portions of said exposed upstanding edges of said side walls and at least partly in frictional engagement with said side walls, and an applicator integrally formed with and extending from said lid in a direction to orient said applicator to a position entirely within said closed first case portion, all parts of said applicator extending below said lid by a dimension at least equal to the pre-selected thickness of said top wall, the top surface of said lid and the top surface of said top wall being substantially flush when said lid is in closed position; and receptacle defining means cooperating with said bottom wall and said side walls for receiving a composition to be applied by said applicator, said receptacle defining means being so located as to define a receptacle located wholly within said second case portion which is exposed when said lid is removed from said case.
 2. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein a portion of said lid extends beyond at least a part of an end wall whereby to provide means for gripping said lid and removing it from said case against the frictional engagement between said downwardly extending portion and said side walls.
 3. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said applicator includes a brush at the free end thereof.
 4. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said applicator includes a pad at the free end thereof.
 5. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said receptacle defining means comprises a transverse wall of preselected height extending between said side walls and projecting upwardly from said bottom wall.
 6. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein said downwardly extending portion of said lid completely overlies said receptacle and said pre-selected height of said transverse wall is sufficient to place the top edge of said transverse wall in close proximity with said downwardly extending portion when said lid is mounted on said case.
 7. A container as claimed in claim 6 wherein said top wall has a substantially transverse edge defining the dividing line between said closed first case portion and said upwardly open second case portion and said transverse wall is longitudinally spaced from said transverse edge by a distance sufficient to permit entry of said applicator into said first case portion.
 8. A container as claimed in claim 1 wherein said lid is of a pre-selected thickness, said pre-selected thickness being substantially the same as said pre-selected thickness of said top wall. 